By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Fact: Duke has a better chance of being a conference champion — in football — than USC does. http://bit.ly/13QBq0

By Brendan Loy

Wow. I’m not surprised the Trojans lost, but I wasn’t expecting that. After eight years without a loss by more than a touchdown — a streak dating to when I was a junior at USC — we lose to the Ducks by twenty-seven?! Holy cow.

Putting it another way… Oregon beat USC by a wider margin than Notre Dame’s over Wazzu. WTF?

So: the no-blowout-losses streak is over. The Pac-10 championship streak is almost certainly over. The BCS bowl streak? We’ll see. It’s still not impossible USC gets an at-large berth at 10-2, notwithstanding the ugliness of this loss; they’d be eligible, but whether they’d get picked would depend on who they’re up against. They’re certainly in a weaker position than I anticipated. Holiday Bowl, here we come?

Meanwhile, it’ll be fascinating to see what the pollsters do with Oregon… and with Boise State. Although, with Alabama, Florida, Texas and Iowa all stubbornly refusing to lose, it may not matter. This is looking more and more like one of those rare seasons in which two undefeated teams actually meet for the BCS title, and the positioning among one-loss teams (and unbeaten mid-majors) becomes purely academic.

*sigh*

Beat the Sun Devils.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

How high does Oregon go in polls? This is an awfully impressive win. Impressive enough to cause pollsters to “forget” head-to-head w/ Boise?

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @USCFootballNews Last time USC lost by 3 TDs or more: 1997 at Arizona State (35-7). That’s pre-Hackett!

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @USCFootballNews USC’s defense has surrendered 104 points in the last 11 quarters.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @ArashMarkazi I knew USC’s defense was struggling, but 41-20 after three quarters? Wow. Worst performance of the Carroll era by far.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Correction: USC hasn’t lost in a *blowout* since 2000 (pre-Carroll). Worst loss of ‘01 was by 11 to ND. Since then, all losses by 7 or less.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

It looks like USC will not only lose to Oregon, but lose in a blowout. That hasn’t happened since 2001. It’s 41-20 Ducks, end 3rd quarter.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

http://twitpic.com/noujc – Rehearsing for tomorrow’s Mozart Requiem concert at Augustana Denver.

By Brendan Loy

Becky’s birthday present to me. :) Woohoo! Beat the Ducks!

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Headline of the day (from Tuesday): “Somebody Buy Joe Lieberman a Puppy” http://bit.ly/3BK45P

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Happy Birthday to meeeee, Happy Birthday to meeeee, Happy Birthday dear Brendan, Happy Birthday to meeeee!

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

ESPN @GameDayFootball coming to Air Force next Saturday: http://bit.ly/3SuDd1. Details: http://bit.ly/3mDRH5.

By Brendan Loy

Stephen Colbert on Joe Lieberman, presented without comment:

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.)

By Brendan Loy

The backside of one of those rooftop snow drifts, seen from our upstairs bathroom window:

By Brendan Loy

We’ve got a foot of snow, give or take a few inches, at our house in north Denver — it’s hard to measure exactly because of all the drifts, due to a stiff north wind — and some places in the Denver area are reporting upwards of two feet. And it’s not over yet.

Here are the Loy house, our Halloween decorations have taken on a distinctly wintery, almost Christmas-like feel, as you can see above. And our pumpkins are now completely snow-covered:

Dr. Jeff Masters says it’s “the biggest October snowstorm in the Denver region since 1997.” Here are some more photos:

The last photo is of our poor, beleaguered apple tree, which we planted when we first moved into our house. (I have since shaken the snow off as best I could.)

My mom is supposed to fly into Denver tonight for a weekend visit with us and the grandkids. Hopefully her flight makes it. Some flights into DIA are being cancelled this morning, others are delayed, while still others are right on schedule.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Ground has been broken on New New Yankee Stadium since New Yankee Stadium was just demolished by Cliff Lee #cliffleefacts (RT @Alexander_O)

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

“Across the urban corridor, including Denver, accumulations could hit 18 inches by morning, the weather service said.” http://bit.ly/10xn3k

By Brendan Loy

Via @denverpost a few minutes ago: “According to the roof of The Denver Post building, 11.25 inches of snow fell here so far today.” And there’s more coming tomorrow. Quite a bit more. Welcome to October in Colorado:

Note the Halloween decorations on the front porch of the house at right. Heh. The fake spider webs blend right in with the snow!

Here’s what our pumpkins (or as Loyette would say, “PUMPEES!!!”), and one of our Halloween decorations, looked like this afternoon:

If you’re curious what the pumpkins looked like before they were covered in snow, well, here you go:

All credit to Becky on the carving job. Can’t wait to see ‘em lit up Saturday night! (And can’t wait to hear how Loyette translates “jack-o-lantern” into toddler-speak. Heh.)

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

USC-Oregon is the Trojans’ 11th regular-season ESPN @GameDayFootball game; they’re 10-0 so far. BEAT THE DUCKS! http://bit.ly/4uYSQ8

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Spreading tweet-meme: #CliffLeeFacts. Like Chuck Norris / Jack Bauer “facts.” Re: Phillies pitcher Lee, who pitched masterful complete game in World Series opener victory at Yankees. Funny stuff.